'Confessions' of playwright Susan Chamberlin

So what does a lawyer do when she leaves the practice to be a stay-at-home mom? Turn to writing radio and stage scripts, what else?

Jeanné McCartin

So what does a lawyer do when she leaves the practice to be a stay-at-home mom? Turn to writing radio and stage scripts, what else?

It's as likely an alternative as any for a woman who entered college as a dance major, moved to history and finally law.

Susan Chamberlin of Portsmouth, who also freelances for local papers, including with Seacoast Media Group, started writing in 2005.

"Why? That's a good question. I was just moved to write. I think it was a way to push myself, explore boundaries — mental boundaries rather than physical boundaries." (Can you sense the many at-home moms shaking their heads in empathy?)

Chamberlin (who left her dream of dancing behind as an "unlikely path") was motivated to write after she read a story by Walter Mosley.

"I thought it would make a great play. I redrafted it. Then I tried to get the rights and couldn't," she says. "Then I started writing; conversation and characters came to my head."

"Sewing Lessons," her first stage script, landed a spot in the Newburyport (Mass.) New Works Festival.

"If it hadn't been I'd probably have just stopped, thought 'Oh well I just don't have the talent for this.' I'm not sure if I would have kept at it." But as it was she got in, received a lot of positive feedback and has gone on to write eight new pieces.

It was a quick success; one she was wise enough to take as opportunity for empiric study. After seeing the piece on stage Chamberlain decided to "learn the craft a little more." She began working 10- and 15-minute pieces to get a better handle on the dynamics, as she puts it.

Her second submission was to the Players' Ring, where she scored a spot in the Portsmouth theater's 2007/'08 Late Night slots with "I Remember You."

The Ring experience was much the same as the first, a mix of fun and stress. Chamberlin says having a piece produced is much like being on stage herself "my words my thoughts." In addition there's adjusting to the loss of control; it's in someone else's hands.

"Sometimes I would have imagined (a scene) in my head; what it was supposed to look like. When they didn't do that I would think 'oh no that wasn't right.' ...; There's never been a radical change that made me want to get up and walk out," she says with a light laugh.

"The challenge is to see it like collaboration and let it go, turn it over to the director and actors and let them go with it," she says "It's definitely a dynamic process."

Good fortune has given her good directors, which makes that part of the process easier — not without challenge, but easier, she notes. Chamberlin recognizes a script can be improved in the right hands. She's even made changes to a play based on directors' and actors' choices.

"Some writers turn the piece over and don't participate in the rehearsal. They show up on opening night and see what's happening. I like to be there. For me it's a learning experience. I like to see what ideas they have for doing things."

She recalls an incident with Director Greg Chabot, who worked her piece for the Newburyport festival. He chose to split the stage leaving the script's two rooms and their inhabitants in view throughout the play. Her script had one on stage at a time. "He had them interact silently. ...; It worked perfectly. I wrote it into the script afterward."

Chamberlin currently has two short plays on stage in "Late Night Confessions II" at the Players' Ring as part of its Late Night series. The evening also includes shorts by regional playwrights David Mauriello and Michael Kimball.

One of her two works is "George and Bill are Friends;" a piece that made its debut at the emerging artist theater festival EAT Fest in New York City this past April at an off-off Broadway venue; a "darling, killer" black box, 100-seat theater, on the fifth floor on 43rd Street.

Chamberlin met with its director beforehand and continued to correspond by e-mail regarding various aspects of the play — part of the learning curve. It proved to be another fortuitous pairing with a talented director who suggested valid changes.

The piece is a political satire that imagines George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton's "father and son" friendship, as well as other political settings. ("I just wondered what these guys talk about. It's such an unlikely friendship.")

The piece has a surprise ending. But once up, it just wasn't working, she says. The New York director made suggestions that supported the final joke. "As soon as they made it I thought 'yes, that's great.' ...; And on stage it worked wonderfully." And of course it's now part of the script.

Chamberlin likes to write about politics. "In one of my many careers I was a lobbyist (for the electric utility industry). ...; and in New Hampshire we're steeped in politics. You hear it constantly." The drawback is it can take months, nay years to put one up by which time the situation may have changed drastically.

Chamberlin's "Lions and Hyenas" is the second piece in the Ring lineup. This one was inspired by the recent Eliot Spitzer prostitution ring sting. Given the quixotic nature of politics she's mixed in earlier era's salacious history with the current event. It gives the piece a longer life, she says.

The piece is already slated for production at a theater in Lebanon, Pa.

One way to get a piece out while its relevant is to do radio theater. Chamberlin has penned a few pieces for John Lovering's "Audio Theater" on Portsmouth Community Radio WSCA. In addition to "George and Bil" Lovering produced the "Horse Race," which looked at the earliest presidential primary period.

In the end, the lady who left dance behind as impractical has entrenched herself in another iffy career pursuit. If playwright wasn't bad enough, she's drawn to political satire.

"The chances of making money at this are very, very slim. I have to balance it out with my desire to do it at ...; with being a stay-at-home mom," she says. And chances are when her daughter is older it will be back to a "paying job." "We'll just see how it goes."

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